Spread Options: Dr. Saturday's Week 9 picks against the spread

Believe it or not, we went 6-4 in Week 8. Baby steps? Overall record 33-45-2.

Louisville (-3) at Wake Forest, 12:20 p.m. ET: Can the Demon Deacons keep up with Louisville and Lamar Jackson? Louisville’s defense may let them. But we like Jackson to have a great game against Wake and keep reminding folks that he’s the defending Heisman winner. How about a 300-yard passing day and four total touchdowns?

Virginia (+3) at Pitt, 12:30 p.m. ET: A win gets the Cavaliers bowl eligible. Meanwhile, Pitt is 1-3 in the conference and had two of its players get in a fight over a game of Madden earlier this week. As long as Kurt Benkert doesn’t throw a horrid interception like he did in Week 8, we like Virginia to pull the “upset.”

Cal (+3.5) at Colorado, 2 p.m. ET: Colorado looked absolutely lost against Washington State in Week 8 as the Cougars shut out the Buffaloes 28-0. A quarterback battle emerged too, as Steven Montez was replaced by Sam Noyer in the second half of the game. While Cal lost to Arizona last week, that’s nothing to be ashamed of. The Wildcats are one of the most dynamic teams in the country with Khalil Tate at quarterback now.

Kansas State at Kansas (UNDER 55.5), 3 p.m. ET: The Wildcats are favored by 24 points, which is about right — or possibly a little low because Kansas State coach Bill Snyder doesn’t tend to show any mercy to his in-state rival. But even if Kansas State covers the number easily, how is Kansas going to contribute enough to hit 56 total points? This is a Jayhawk team that has the worst offense in the country and is a week removed from a 21-yard performance at TCU. Ew.

Michigan State at Northwestern (UNDER 41), 3:30 p.m. ET: This could be another Northwestern game where Big Ten nostalgists can savor. It took overtime for Northwestern to beat Iowa 17-10 in Week 8 and Michigan State has hit the under in its games five times this season. A second-straight 17-10 game for the Wildcats just feels right.

Penn State (+6) at Ohio State, 3:30 p.m. ET: The game of the week should live up to its billing. The offensive star (either Penn State’s Saquon Barkley or Ohio State’s J.T. Barrett) of whatever team wins could also emerge as the Heisman favorite at the end of the week. If, say, Ohio State wins a close game, we’re fascinated to see where Penn State ends up in the inaugural College Football Playoff rankings on Tuesday.

Georgia vs. Florida (OVER 43.5), 3:30 p.m. ET: It’s time for Georgia to break Florida’s three-game winning streak in this rivalry. Only Florida’s redshirt seniors have lost to the Bulldogs, but Georgia is too talented to lose this game … right? Weird things happen sometimes in Jacksonville. Like Florida’s offense doing enough to hit the over in this game.

Houston at South Florida (OVER 57), 3:45 p.m. ET: The Bulls have scored 30+ points in 24-straight games, an FBS record. A 30+-point performance on Saturday seems like a good bet. Houston has given up 45 and 42 points in each of its past two games.

Mississippi State at Texas A&M (+1), 7:15 p.m. ET: How in the world are the Bulldogs favored in this game? What do oddsmakers — or bettors — think they know that we don’t? A&M has steadily improved as the season’s gone on and this is just MSU’s second conference road trip of the season. The first was a 31-3 loss at Georgia.

Nebraska at Purdue (-5) 7:30 p.m. ET: It’s hard to have any confidence in Nebraska, even against a Purdue team that’s coming off a loss to Rutgers. That loss was Purdue’s second-straight road game and the Boilermakers easily dispatched Minnesota at home before embarking on that road trip. Minnesota is better than Nebraska. We think.